March 1, 2022 Tuesday 9:00 am
The Bourbon County Commission met in open session with all three Commissioners and the County Clerk present.
Matt Crystal, Donald Coffman, Clint Walker and Matt Quick were present for a part or all of the meeting.
Lynne made a motion to approve the previous meetings minutes. Jim seconded. All approved.
Eric Bailey said there are no permits this week. He said that they did ok during last week’s snow storm and are still doing ok on materials. He said they are very close to getting moving the crusher to Thomas Query. The scrap metal from the landfill was sold for $6872.95. Eric said they are in the last step for the permit to accept beans at the landfill. He said that he has to send in some paperwork and then it will take 30 days before they should be good to go. He advised that 130th and Birch they are waiting on the concrete to cure and then will put the guardrail back up and will be done. Range and 115th started there yesterday. We found a large void 5 foot by 8 foot by 3 ½ foot. We’ve filled the void and will be getting it opened back up. Lynne asked Eric about 95th & Unity. The tubes are completely gone and it will have to be very dry to work on it. It will be a very expensive process. Tuesday, March 15 @ 1pm will be a work session for our paved roads. Last year we paved 14 miles or 28 lane miles. We replaced 75 to 100 tubes. We replaced 3 large tubes while asphalting. Lynne stated 125th looks good. Eric stated one of their dump trucks burned over the weekend. We are waiting to hear from the insurance company. He thanked the rural fire dept and sheriff’s department for helping. Eric stated that they got truck 146 back but it isn’t right so it will have to go back. Final punch list on the windmills.
County Counselor Comment: 107 parcels ready for the tax sale in May. The third sale this year will be Hidden Valley. On Thursday, Chairman Harris and I will meet at 4pm and finalize with the hospital.
Finance Director Comments: Susan stated that she and Rob Harrington were filling out grant applications and some of the questions were alarming. Do you have any audit violations and what type are they. It may be that if we could partnership with the city allowing them to fill out the application or possibly going through BBCO REDI to apply. It doesn’t look good that we have a bad audit from last year. As we go through some of these we may be looking at the application as being BBCO REDI or work with the city. Jim stated if need be he would prefer BBCO REDI. Timeline of events showing particular calendar events. The County Commission Meeting at Uniontown will be moved from March 8th to the 22nd due to scheduling conflict with the building housing another meeting on the 8th. We are looking at Mapleton on April 5th for the commission meeting. It was requested that we look at Bronson, Garland and Hiattville for future meetings. We talked about it on the radio today that we would like more community involvement. We will be having department head meetings each month. I’ve already set up work sessions for budget preparation. Susan stated that last year we had some FEMA funding and some federal exchange dollars and those were receipted into our special capital improvement fund. We can’t legally do that. It has to go back into the fund it is reimbursing. Lynne made a motion to move $376,000 from the Road & Bridge Fund to the Special Capital Improvement Fund in Public Works. Jim seconded. All approved. Hamlin Energy stopped by and visited with us. Currently we have a contract with Pro Energy Solutions. They are no longer going to be servicing our area. Our contract is up in May. Hamlin would like to come in and be a consultant to help us find a new source of energy group and lock in our rates for us. We can study the paperwork and talk about this at a later meeting. I do not have financials for you today. I met with Rhonda and Patty yesterday and we got to a point that we all agreed. There are a couple of journal entries I need to make. I’ll get those completed today and hopefully next week we’ll have something. Terry is not able to audit us until after April so we are in good shape. We met as a group with Clerk’s Office and our website person and Ashley is planning on a lot of new updates to the site. Thursday we have a meeting with Universal to discuss the Public Safety Building with a punch list.
Lynne stated that Justin Meeks was asked to look into the private public partnership for Elm Creek Lake and would like Susan to look at possible funds for restoring Elm Creek Lake. It was built in 1935 WPA project.
Clifton made a motion for an executive session KSA 75-4319(b)(6) for the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property including 3 commissioners, Justin Meeks, Susan Bancroft and Rob Harrington by phone for 15 minutes returning at 9:42am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at 9:42am. No action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Clifton made a motion for an executive session KSA 75-4319(B)(2) for consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship including 3 commissioners, Susan Bancroft and Justin Meeks regarding EEOC & FLSA for 15 minutes returning at 9:58am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at 9:58am. No action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Public Comment: Clint Walker stated that when he attended a public forum the comment was made that the food sales tax off is a good thing to a point. It wouldn’t be just groceries. It would include food in restaurants, convenient stores, etc.
Matt Quick stated that property valuation has gone up 5% over last year. Six percent of the increase in residential and 6% farm home sites. It’s market driven. The state statutes state we have to be within 10% of market value. Things are selling high. Thirty days for informal protest from when is sent.
Elected Official Comment: Clifton made a motion for an executive session KSA 75-4319(b)(1) to discuss personnel matters of individual nonelected personnel to protect their privacy including 3 commissioners, Susan Bancroft and Lora Holdridge regarding job performance for 10 minutes returning at 10:16am. Lynne seconded. All approved. Clifton made a motion to return to normal session at 10:16am. No action. Lynne seconded. All approved.
Ashley Shelton stated that she would be in training next week. The first of several sessions. She thanked the commissioners for making it possible for her to go. She also will be taking classes for Abstract training. Ashley also suggested that we have a commission meeting at the courthouse in the evening.
Commission Comment: Jim stated that due to continuation of conflict he is resigning from the Lake Advisory Board effective today.
Don Coffman asked what lake property is for sale. Jim stated that the city still owns lots and they want to get them developed and sold. They are not owned by the county.
At 10:20am, Clifton made a motion to adjourn. Lynne seconded. All approved.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF BOURBON COUNTY, KANSAS
(ss) Jim Harris, Chairman
(ss) Lynne Oharah, Commissioner
(ss) Clifton Beth, Commissioner
ATTEST:
Ashley Shelton, Bourbon County Clerk
March 8, 2022, Approved Date